The invention relates to venetian blinds, and more particularly to a clip for securing the top slat of a venetian blind to the supporting rung of its ladder cord.
Venetian blinds in general have two sets of cords for operating the blind. A raising/lowering cord raises and lowers the entire blind over the window A ladder cord supports the slats of the blind and controls the opening and closing of the blind by tilting the slats. The ladder cord is generally shaped like a ladder, having rungs and legs. The slats rest freely on the rungs and are tilted when the legs of the ladder cord are raised or lowered by the tilt mechanism.
This arrangement provides a pleasing aesthetic appearance and good control of the slats of the blind, except for the top-most slat. When a one inch supporting rail is used in the construction of a venetian blind with one inch slats, the top-most slat is pinched between the legs of the ladder cord. This pinching is caused by the angle the ladder cord must assume as it extends from the tilt mechanism down and around the top-most slat. This pinching effect prevents the top-most slat from resting freely on the rungs of the ladder cords and therefore when the legs of the ladder cord are raised and lowered by the tilt mechanism the top-most slat is caught between the legs and does not tilt with the rest of the slats. This creates an undesirable and non-uniform appearance in the blind.
It is known in the art that a solution to this problem is to fix the top-most slat to its rungs of the ladder cords. A variety of means have been developed to accomplish this result, but each of these has required a compromise of cost, ease of assembly or aesthetic appearance. One solution has been to provide a separate metal or plastic part which fastens to the underside of the top-most slat in the area of the ladder and rung. The metal part has tabs which are bent around the front and back edges of the slat, with the rung placed between the metal part and the slat, thereby securing the rung and metal part to the top-most slat. The plastic part is similar to the metal part except that it clips around the front and back edges of the slat instead of having tabs which are bent. Installation of these parts requires additional manual steps and mars the aesthetic of the blind.
A second solution to the problem is more aesthetically pleasing, but also more difficult to assemble. In this solution a split rung is provided for the top-most slat. The slat is then passed through the split rung, effectively securing it to the rung.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a means for securing the top-most slat of a venetian blind to its rungs on the ladder cords with minimal additional cost and without marring the aesthetic appearance of the blind.